Play GameBoy Advance games on Windows Phone 8 with VBA8

Sometimes it feels like there aren’t enough of certain game types on Windows Phone, such as RPGs and strategy games. Sure, we have a few of each to choose from, but it’s still slim pickings for the avid gamer. You know one portable platform that had an unabashedly great library? The GameBoy Advance, a color portable handheld console released back in the innocent year 2001.

Now ‘m.k’ – the developer of the Snes8x emulator, has brought the excellence of the GBA library to Windows Phone with a new emulator: VBA8. Like Snes8x before it, VBA8 uses the power of Windows Phone 8 (not 7) to accurately recreate a classic gaming experience.

GBA in your pocket

VBA8 comes with a free demo ROM (game image) called Bunny Advance that’s not good for much other than deleting in a hurry. To get more games, you’ll need to upload your own ROMs to SkyDrive, link your account to the emulator, and then individually download each game. Games can be renamed, deleted, and even pinned to the Start screen once they’re in your library.

The emulator’s main menu uses a vertical orientation, and games can be played from that perspective. Doing so makes the screen really tiny though, so I don’t recommend it. Flipping the phone horizontally is the optimum way to play.

The size and transparency of the virtual controls can be adjusted in the Settings menu outside of gameplay. The controls themselves don't look too hot, but looks aren’t such a big deal since they’re usually transparent anyway. During gameplay, tapping the edge of the screen brings up a menu that allows users to save and load at will or exit to the main menu.

VBA8 does a great job of recreating GameBoy Advance games on Windows Phone. I tested a variety of games, from platformers to beat-em-ups to RPGs. All ran at a great frame rate on my Lumia 920. I didn’t detect any graphical glitches, even during the 3D opening of Final Fantasy VI Advance. The actual sound is a bit scratchy though. The scratchiness didn’t hamper my experience, but it will be interesting to see whether the sound emulation improves over time.

Slippery fingers

The only major complaint I have with VBA8 involves its virtual d-pad. Reducing the d-pad’s size (which you might do to avoid obstructing your view) pulls it too close to the corner of the screen, making it all but unreachable. Regardless of size, move your finger anywhere past the edge of the d-pad and it won’t work. I often slid my thumb too far to the right and stopped moving, much to my chagrin. Hopefully the developer will add an option for repositioning the d-pad as well as extending its functional area a bit past the edge of the graphic.

Given the unpolished nature of the virtual controls, VBA8 is better suited for RPGs than action games at the moment. Thankfully there are tons of excellent GameBoy Advance RPGs out there: Final Fantasy IV-VI, Pokémon Emerald, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Golden Sun, Fire Emblem, Tactics Ogre, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Lunar Legend, and many more.

GBA time!

The SNES lineup consists of older classics of the nineties, whereas the GBA lineup naturally consists of more technically impressive early 2000s-era games. Perhaps for that reason, VBA8 isn’t free (unlike Snes8x). It costs $2.99, but there is also a free demo with save states disabled. Windows Phone 8 users can grab VBA8 here at the Windows Phone Store.

Play GameBoy Advance games on Windows Phone 8 with VBA8

Hi! I will have to send my cellphone to technical support center soon so they can fix some problems and they will probably format it. How can I make a back up for the saved game files? I mean, is the saved game file usually stored in the memory stick or in the phone memory? Thanks!

Does anyone else notice the mudiness/yellowish tint to this emulation? after seing my friends S3 emulate, and my old iPhone 4, this one has what looks like terrible smoothing, and dirty colors, I hope to see a better emulater, i THANK that he made it, and gave him my money already, but if there is a better option, I will definitely buy it.

Hmm, I hadn't noticed that. Guess I'd need to compare shots from a different emulator to see it. I do look forward to the upcoming emulator from Sam Blanchard though, as it never hurts to have some competition.

woooo couldnt be more happy with this!
I noticed a slight problem though, when I tried to import a ROM on the trial, it told me I needed to buy, which I knew, so I pressed "buy now", and it took me to his SNES smulator instead!
Obviously not a major problem, but something that needs to be fixed

I really like the idea of emulation on my phone. The problem I have is the touch controls. Is there any sort of bluetooth controller support? The other problem is that every once in a while i'll hit one of the capacative buttons. They've got some BT controllers that can sit on a keychain.. anything is better than touch controls..

No Bluetooth controller support yet, but I uspect we;ll get that in a future OS update like WP 8.5 or WP9.

Touch controls are less than ideal, but you do get used to them with enough practice. Plus, some games (like the RPGs I list in the article) don't require precision controls, and those are pretty much the same with or without physical buttons.

1. Download from a roms site.
2. Put in a folder in your SkyDrive named ROMS (if you don't have one, then you should just make one)
3. Go to the app
4. Press "Import ROM"
5. Go to the ROM folder
6. Download game to phone
7. Go to Main Menu
8. Pick game
9. Enjoy

For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure he's not charging for this only because it's newer, but instead he's now charging for all of them. SNES8X isn't free anymore either on Windows 8, and I suspect the WP price will change soon as well.

This is good news but I find the virtual controls too hard to use, even on the fairly large screen of the 820. Of course, we cannot blame the emulator designers for this. Like you folks have mentioned, best suited for RPGs

The creator of these emulators is doing WP users a great favor. I don't mind that he is charging money for this because his snes emulator is great, so its time for him to make his money. I think I will appreciate this one more tha. Snes one because there are less buttons to use than the snes one,so it will be easier game play.

Fpsece (psx emulator for windows mobile) was great. I never had problems with the on-screen controls.
Although, it saddens me that we've gone away from hardware buttons. On-screen will never outperform them.

I've basically given up on any kind of serious gaming on Windows Phone because you can't backup/sync saved games. It seems like hard-resetting or swapping a device still just happens a bit too often for me to want to invest the time in a game only to lose it 6 months later. This makes me sad.

I hate to admit it but gaming is WAY easier on any other platform (except BB10), due to local storage and a very usable cloud database for your installed apps. Also, data can also be stored on the cloud unlike WP, where save data is local only.

1. Download from a roms site.
2. Put in a folder in your SkyDrive named ROMS (if you don't have one, then you should just make one)
3. Go to the app
4. Press "Import ROM"
5. Go to the ROM folder
6. Download game to phone
7. Go to Main Menu
8. Pick game
9. Enjoy

For real...people there's not enough games...now we have a developer giving us more options and people are complaining. If you don't like cookies, then keep your hand out of the jar and keep moving. I for one love me some cookies. I hope the next emulator is N64. Keep it coming.

Ha, I was just thinking how much it annoyes me when people say this.
Emulation is no different to ripping a track of a CD and playing it on something else.
But you think that the thousands I spent on game cartridges should be written off, and I should have to buy them all again to use on modern hardware? Thanks but I'm with the law on this one: Emulation is fine so long as you bought the games.
Not convinced? Then go buy all your CDs again as MP3s please. And tell your friends to.

I think emulation is a blessing. Who doesn't want to play Pokemon emerald on a larger screen? I have literally every copy of Pokemon but I lost my GBA a few years ago. I don't think I'm stealing. If there was a slot for the cartridge in my 820, I'd use it.